Our trip to Ninh Binh

I had wanted to see the new Bai Dinh pagoda since reading this blog post about it earlier this year. Take a look at these links:

http://www.indochinacharmtravel.com/visiting-largest-pagoda-complex-vietnam

http://www.vivutravel.com/index.php?page=travel_news&do=detail&catid=14&id=235

The chance to visit what will become the largest (I think) pagoda in Southeast Asia as well as the largest center for Buddhism in Vietnam while it is in the process of being constructed sounded very attractive. It would be like seeing Notre Dame or the Statue of Liberty in progress!

Ninh Binh (pronounced Ning Bing) province is about 2 hours outside of Hanoi. We arranged a driver to take us there for the day. It was a lovely drive with some very picturesque mountains along the way. Ninh Binh is called "Ha Long Bay on Land" for the similar karsts, rock formations, that jut out of the landscape.

I honestly don't know what I was expecting of our visit to Bai Dinh pagoda, but it is very much a building site. The entrance gate off of the highway is only partially completed, and so is the road on the way in. Everywhere there are backhoes, cranes, scaffolding, piles of dirt and sand, and very young trees planted. You can tell it's going to be massive, incredible, and very important...someday soon, but it's not there yet, which made for an interesting visit.

Driving up to the temple is like visiting a tent city. There are makeshift food stalls for the workers and few visitors. Our car was swarmed (I mean swarmed, with people literally pressing their face up to the car windows) by ladies trying to get us to buy incense and other offerings for the temple. Simon freaked. out. And that, unfortunately, set the tone for our visit to Bai Dinh. We saw less than a dozen other tourists/Buddhists while there, but every second we were shadowed and interrupted by workers, craftsmen, people hawking souvenirs, wanting to take our photos, offering a motorbike to the top. For over two and a half hours, we were simply not let alone. It made it rather difficult to take in the gorgeous lakeside surroundings and the mountain that we had to climb to reach the largest and highest temple. A lot of the unwanted attention, of course, was because of Simon. Everyone had to touch him, everyone shouted "Vietnam! Vietnam!" when they got a look at him. I can't imagine what was going through his little head, but I could hear him behind me in the Ergo saying to himself "Don't cry, they just want to look at you." That broke my heart a little, that he had to say that to himself because he was probably pretty scared. I'm tearing up a little just thinking back to it yesterday. (We had a really unique tourist experience this morning at the Temple of Literature where Simon was literally MOBBED by exuberant teenagers and I'll post about that soon, but I want to interrupt here to say that it felt quite different to me, even though there were like 35 teens with their cameras out following Simon around in a giant pack. At Bai Dinh it felt less friendly, less funny, and actually more mean-spirited) One man at Bai Dinh spoke a bit of English and asked us, "Baby, how much money?" It was very hard. I'm glad we had Simon in the Ergo because he felt more secure, and that way nobody could grab him and pick him up, which happens all the time, and which he is clearly having some problems with.

I don't want to be very negative because the drive up was gorgeous and so was the complex. We want to come back when it is finished because it's going to be incredibly lush and gorgeous and awe-inspiring. There is a pervasive sense of peace and tranquility there, looking down from the mountain onto the lake, surrounded by thousands of smiling Arhat statues. Sadly, our visit was turned into a circus sideshow and we weren't granted a minute of peace ourselves to really take it all in.

Enjoy the photos!


At a rest stop on the way to Ninh Binh

















Driving up to what will be the main entrance/parking lot



Entrance gate





Temple guardians









Arhat statues - no two faces are alike!



















Hundreds of statues like two looooooong arcades on either side going up the mountain. Eventually every single alcove behind the statues will be filled in with a smaller Buddha statue! The amount of stonework is STAGGERING!











The gorgeous central pagoda and large bell















View down the mountain from the central pagoda























Simon, of course, loved seeing all of the construction equipment













The massive Buddha at the top





Large bell we think was forged in Hue



View from the road back to Hanoi



After we got back to Hanoi, we all crashed for several hours, but then went out for a little walk down Hai Ba Trung to the Opera House. At Trang Tien Plaza, we bought Simon a Santa hat and his first taste of popcorn









Opera House









Christmas Tree at the Hilton



We had a really fun tourist day today, gorgeous hot and sunny weather and lots of strolling. I'll post about that maybe late tonight. We are heading out in about half an hour to see An & An & Nga and Baby Mun again.